Are Employers in Oklahoma Required to Pay Temporary Total Disability (TTD) Benefits to Former Employees?

Temporary total disability (TTD) benefits are often the most contested part of a workers’ compensation claim. Per the Administrative Workers’ Compensation Act (AWCA), an injured employed is entitled to TTD, or 70% of the Average Weekly Wage, if he or she is unable to perform their job duties, or any alternative work offered by the employer. For employer’s to avoid paying TTD benefits, the employer must advise the employee that work is available within any work restrictions, and to make a job offer within those restrictions. If the employer has no light duty/alternative work available, TTD benefits must continue.

But what about a situation where the employee has voluntarily resigned from their position? Generally when a claimant voluntarily resigns, the employer is not obligated to offer alternative work once light duty restrictions have been assigned by the treating physician. This standard rule, though, has had exceptions, most notably in the matter of Urology Center of Southern Oklahoma v. Miller, a now fifteen-year old decision from the Court of Civil Appeals (COCA), which pre-dates the Administrative Workers’ Compensation Act (AWCA).

In the Miller case, the COCA allowed an injured worker to receive TTD benefits following an injury which occurred after she had already given a two-week notice of her resignation. The Miller Court acknowledged that it was “counter-intuitive” to be required to offer light duty “to a person no longer employed” due to their voluntary resignation. However, the Court made it clear that its ruling was based on “specific and unique facts,” and that the resignation was made prior to, and without knowledge of the claimant’s injury. Nevertheless, there have been times, based on the Miller holding, that Employer’s have been placed into the illogical position of offering light duty to an former employee.

Aside from Miller, most other appellate decisions have agreed that the Employer’s obligation to offer alternative work is severed once the employer/employee relationship ceases to exist, either through voluntary resignation or termination for cause, such as failing a post-accident drug screen.

A recent decision from Division II of the COCA, Oakes v. City of Stillwater, re-affirms the idea that once an injured worker resigns from his job the duty to provide TTD is nullified once temporary restrictions are provided by the treating doctor. In the Oakes case, the claimant injured his knee while stepping off of a forklift. He underwent arthroscopy several months post-injury, then voluntarily quit to take a higher paying job in California. TTD benefits were paid by the employer, followed by a period of alternative duty, before the doctor released claimant to full duty.

Mr. Oakes periodically travelled back to Oklahoma to receive medical treatment, and was again assigned restrictions by the treating doctor, who recommended for a partial knee replacement surgery. The employer paid TTD benefits following the second surgery, but filed a Motion to Terminate TTD with the Workers’ Compensation Commission once temporary restrictions were assigned post-surgically. The employer’s position was that it was not obligated to provide alternative/light duty to an ex-employee, and that it’s TTD liability ended once the doctor assigned restrictions.

The Oakes claim was heard by an Administrative Law Judge in March 2023, with the Judge finding, “it is undisputed that Claimant was not offered a light duty position. Since no job offer was made to Claimant, he is entitled to continue to receive (TTD) benefits. It is incumbent upon [the City] to follow the statutory mandate and offer Claimant a light duty position in order to avoid payment of [TTD] benefits while Claimant is on light duty restrictions.”

The Employer appealed to the WC Commission En Banc, with the Commissioner’s finding, in part, that “(a)n employer does not have a legal obligation to offer light duty work to an employee that has voluntarily quit…and has no obligation to pay TTD to said employee once they have been medically release to light duty work.”

On further appeal, the Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed. The Oakes Court held that “Claimant was released to work full duty at the time of his resignation, and neither his injury nor his disability status was relevant to the severing of the employer-employee relationship. Claimant was clearly not discharged ‘for the sole reason of being absent from work or for the purpose of avoiding payment of temporary total disability benefits,’ nor did his employment even end ‘during a period of temporary total disability.” Thus they interpreted the AWCA and case law to conclude that the City of Stillwater “had no obligation to extend an offer of alternative work to Claimant prior to terminating payment of TTD benefits upon Claimant’s release to light-duty work…”

So in claims involving a former employee, especially one who voluntarily resigned or was terminated for cause, the employer is likely shielded from TTD exposure once light duty restrictions are assigned. The Oakes ruling, though, is fact specific and may not be applicable to employees where the employment relationship is disputed, and was not severed either by resignation or termination for cause.